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Interested in becoming a Certified Scrum Master?
Come to my next workshop!
Please note:
Tomorrow will most likely be the last comic strip for the end of 2007. Tony (our artist!) is planning on taking a two week hiatus between now and the new year. This is good stuff and shows he works on having a life (something we talk about a lot on here). While he is gone, I may do a little refactoring on the site and add some additional material and ideas.
If you have any ideas about the content for the remainder of this year, please contact me anytime and we can chat, email, or meet face-to-face.
I have a lot of great plans to be unveiled for 2008.
For those of you who are “stuck” doing the work thing over the upcoming holidays — spend some time surfing the net — specifically at this site and learn more about your craft and how to get better at it. Find something you like? Pass it on to your friends (they do not even need to be geeks!).
So… Tomorrow we will introduce the last comic strip of 2007.
Hope you enjoy it!
Gotta run….Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.
You can also enter The Forum to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!
December 16, 2007
Hi all,
Alas, my first refactoring of the “Original Chicken and Pig” story is completed. As a test for me, can you please click on this link and see how it works in your browser?
The end goal of this refactoring exercise is to integrate the original 18 postings into this new blogging system for a more cohesive look and feel in the future.
Comments are welcome. And thanks for helping make this site even better for you (and future people who may be reading this site!).
Hi again (from Kyiv, day one of the class is over and 23 people are in attendance!)
In my last posting to you, I mentioned that Tony (the artist) would not be able to contribute this week due to other circumstances.
Think about it.
This kind of thing happens on “real” Scrum Teams.
So, I am taking the “Failure Bow” now (really… am sitting here doing that in my hotel room)…
AND…
I will turn this into a positive experience for everyone here.
This week — I am going to take a practice from XP (eXtreme Programming) and refactor some of my earlier writings.
Why am I doing this?
Since we started this site over a year ago, many new people have signed-up to read the blog on a weekly basis (thank you). Some of the “old” material will be new to some of you. For some of you who have been with me “since the beginning” — this should be some good refresher for you (smile).
I will update some of the “old” postings to reflect new information (and links to “future” writings) and thoughts on the topics. Inspect and Adapt.
As a “technical” aside… the first 18 (to be exact lol) of my writings were done on static pages before the site turned into a “true” blogging platform (only to be updated once again a few months ago). This has continued to bug me a bit and makes some of the code on the back end a bit unmanageable.
So.
I have some time to make the updates now (it has been on my product backlog for a while) and will do it. Nothing should change from an “end user” — or your — perspective based on technical bla bla in the background.
Real life stuff we all face on projects anyway.
Might as well show you — by example here — how things are done in the real world, as this is part of my real world.
I hope you enjoy the results and get some real value from it. Because in the end THAT is really what matters.
As usual, let me know what you think!
The “Evil” Doctor and Captain. 
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*** Interested in becoming a Certified Scrum Master? Come to my next workshop! ***
The term “Agile” means different things to different people. It should not.
But.
It does.
And, as I hope you are learning from reading this blog, this is OK and you should accept the fact.
Going religious-zealot on anyone will not help.
Trust me on this one (smile).
So. Am I going to cross a chasm today by saying something that people may disagree with? Maybe.
But.
It is reality.
Now. Remember, Scrum is an agile technique that focuses on the team and its delivery of working software at regular increments. It does not deal with what I will call “engineering practices.”
So?
Well, there is an Agile practice that works well WITH Scrum, and it is called extreme programming — or “XP” for short. The topics that are focused on while using XP are those that engineering teams normally wind up requesting at some point when working on an agile project.
And this is OK.
Read up on XP. It is a good tool to know and understand and to have in your agile toolbox.
And here is something else you may want to use with your teams when it — and you will know when it is time.
A lot of times I go into teams that really do think they understand solid engineering practices.
And, sad to say, most of the times, they suck. OK. Maybe that is a bit harsh. How about, they are kidding themselves to think they could not use improvement.
Want a cool exercise to run with your team? It is something I have used successfully in the past, and you are free to modify and use it at will (although I can claim this is something I came up with in the past, it is derivative work off other exercises that may seem similar).
Get a few big sheets butcher paper and have lots of different little sticky notes.
Draw a line across the paper.
On the left side write, “Hacking.”
On the right side write, “Solid Engineering Practices.”
Now, have the team talk about what makes up solid engineering practices versus hacking away at code.
This can be a great facilitated discussion oh ScrumMaster.
Now, have the team members individually write what they think are hacking versus solid engineering practices.
One per yellow sticky.
And post it along the continuum drawn on the wall with the butcher paper.
What do you see?
It may amaze you.
Now.
Have the team identify three or four things they can start working on *today* to start improving their engineering practices.
Yes.
Scrum does not talk about engineering practices.
But guess what?
Your Scrum Team needs to develop working software.
And solid engineering practices are needed.
In the real world.
Let’s chat more if you have questions on the technique or let me know how it goes with your team. I can write more about this if you are interested.
It is pretty enlightening each time I work with a team on this exercise.
What they do with it is up to the team.
Remember that!
Gotta run….
Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.
You can also enter The Forum to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!
July 16, 2007